Never heard of cute 'em ups either, but they look fun. Like shoot 'em ups but with bright colors and less difficult (from the looks of it, never played one).
Notes in the Margin, page 3
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 On 11/12/2014 at 11:46 AM by KnightDriver See More From This User » |
Yes, it's more multimedia notes on Brett Weiss' new book 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1977-1987.
Choplifter for the Sega Master System. I played a similar game on the Atari 2600, Activision's Chopper Command. Both are a lot like Defender, but I never could get the hang of Defender. Chopper Command, though, I liked. Choplifter looks spiffier and more complex.
This game looks like a must have on Sega Master System. It was remade for Xbox Live a year or two ago. I played some of it and it was good.
Here's a tip for the game BurgerTime. You can lead the food items that chase you into a corner and they might get stuck to each other. Then you can dispatch them with a hamburger bun easier.
I've been noticing that the golden age consoles were pretty different from each other. Atari 2600 games were very simple looking, Intellivision games had more realistic movement of vector graphic looking characters, and Colecovision games did sprites well. Today's consoles aren't as different. Wii-U does cartoony stuff well and PS4 and Xbox One are nearly the same at doing realistic graphics.
Never saw Donkey Kong 3 in the arcades, much less on NES. I wonder how it plays.
Neat shooter, but there's not much variety. The screen is always the same.
What's the deal with this Starpath Supercharger game Dragonstomper for the Atari 2600? Everyone says how great it is, but look at the gameplay. The fighting is all done in text. I don't think I'll hunt down that cassette player you need to play this on the Atari 2600.
This other Starpath game too, Escape from the Mind Master. What is going on in this game? It looks like nothing at all.
In reading about it, it sounded a little bit like Portal with it's various mental challenges, but this video shows me nothing.
Now Fantasy Zone I and II for the Sega Master System are really interesting. I didn't know these kinds of games were called "cute 'em ups", but I think I'm a fan of the genre because Twin Bee was mentioned, and that's a real favorite of mine. After seeing some screens of these in the book, I'm really keen to play them, but let's see some gameplay.
The names of the characters and enemies are really out there. My favorite is "Nuclear Cactus". BAND NAME!!!
Both games are readily available even if you don't have a Sega Master System like me. The arcade port of Fantasy Zone is an unlockable on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection and the SMS version is on Sega Genesis Collection on PS2. Fantasy Zone II is on virtual console.
More on "cute 'em ups". I read this article at http://gaminghistory101.com/2012/03/05/cute-em-up/ and made a short list of games to try:
Parodius and Parodius Da!
Fantasy Zone I, II
Twin Bee and Detana!! Twin Bee
Bumblepig (Xbox live indie game)
Flying Hamster (PSN mini)
Deathsmiles (XBLA)
Otomedius
Anybody know of others?
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